When our realtor said he was determined to sell our house before the end of the month, we smiled and nodded, but privately, Richard and I sort of assumed it was going to take a while. After all, the housing bubble definitely burst, and it is very much a buyer’s market (good for us on the ‘buying a house in Sacramento’ side of things; not so good for us on the ‘selling our current house’ side of things). We specifically set up all the financing so that we would be covered in the event our house might take a little bit longer to sell.

But it looks like our realtor might have managed to pull it off anyway. Right now we’re sitting on a confirmed offer; an offer that puts us in the range we wanted to get for the house. The only downside is that this particular offer is contingent on them selling their own house, which means that while we’re one step further down the road, we’re not quite there yet.

So just in case they’re not able to get their house sold in the time we’ve given them, the house is still being shown and it is still technically for sale, and we are still soliciting offers. Except that now these would be back-up offers, just in case the first offer falls through. And what all of that means is that we are still having to keep on top of the dust bunnies and the smudges on the bathroom mirror and the scrubbing and the clearing and the keeping the current house in a state of ‘clean’ that makes it feel strange and empty and not remotely like home. And of course the lovely irony in all of this is that we have, so far, had more interest in the home (three showings so far in the last four days alone), now that there is the possibility it might be already off the market, than we did when things were free and clear.

I am trying very hard not to stress about all this. I am trying to instead think positively; to send lots of house-selling vibes to our potential buyers, and to distract myself by looking up all things kitchen, in preparation for the rather massive remodeling project we intend to kick off about ten seconds after the house in Sacramento is officially ours. And this means that I have to go through the process of wondering why the heck kitchen designers the world over are so obsessed with speckles when I so very much do not like speckles, and debating the merits of every possible type of countertop available, and pouring through Consumer Reports to find the best appliance options and crossing my fingers that the wall we are hoping to knock out is not, in fact, a structural one, and looking forward to the day when all this is over.